Today we had our third build day with Habitat for Humanity in northern Cincinatti, OH. We crossed into Ohio a few days ago and got here midday yesterday. We all slept in the sanctuary here because it's the only air-conditioned space in the church, but as a result the space has stayed calm and quiet as people messed around outside and downstairs where we stashed all of our bikes.
Sign-in this morning was the usual mad dash to find a spot to write, but we got down to work once we'd all filled out the requisite paperwork. Our site today had three houses in a row, all at about the same level of completion. Two houses needed the roof trusses to be put up and the third already has it's trusses up and needed the plywood sheathing.
I worked on one of the houses that needed all of the trusses. The first end truss took us almost all morning, then after lunch we were able to get about six or seven into place (about half the roof). The reason(s) the first truss took so long was that we had to nail plywood, rigid insulation, the vapor barrier (the Tyvek housewrap stuff) and the eaves onto it. All of these steps took at least 45 minutes to an hour because we had to make sure to the n-th degree that things were perfectly aligned, trimmed, squared off, etc. at the request of our project leader.
I believe in tight tolerances, don't get me wrong, but in all the other construction I've done or heard of, there's always a little fudge room. Not today however. Dick, the leader for our house, about had a conniption fit over the eaves beam being about 1/16th of an inch off from the top of the truss, had us pull out about 10 3" nails, clamp it, and reaffix it. Imagine this process, which mind you took about 15 aggravating minutes, then repeat all afternoon. I appreciate the attention to detail, but at a certain point it got to be a bit much, even for me. But enough ranting...
All in all it was an incredibly enjoyable day. After 8 straight days of riding, including some really tough days at the start of that stretch, it was great to swing a hammer once again. In biking we so seldom use our arms and hands other than to keep ourselves going in a straight line. Today, however,
they were put to good use hoisting the trusses you see above up two stories then across the length of the house to put them into place. The only white knuckles today were from gripping the ropes to make sure these huge things didn't crush anyone on the ground or tip over and land on someone moving about on the scaffolding.
Our day was cut short by a quick storm, but being up on scaffolding where there's thunder and lightning really isn't the greatest idea. We were promptly called down at the sound of the first roar, despite the persistence of the HfH workers. Our build days usually start wrapping up about 3pm, and since today the storm rolled in at 2:30, there were fine with letting us go. Having not walked around on scaffolding much before, and with my ankle STILL hurting, I definitely had to dance my way around today. That said, part of the thrill was feeling like a monkey moving around and watching three roofs take shape within only a matter of hours.
I enjoyed another relaxing afternoon and evening at the church, and I'm already looking forward to our next build day. Until then, RIDE YOUR BIKES!
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